Dec 8, 2003
For nearly a decade, the term "automated document factory" (ADF) has been used by industry analysts to describe the perfect, if not unattainable, mailroom - an operation that employs best practices from the manufacturing industry to maximize the productivity of any environment. And for nearly a decade, the term "automated document factory" has been intimidating organizations far and wide, based on its perceived complexity.
It's hard to dispute the benefits an ADF operation offers, but we have found that it is difficult for customers to come to terms with what - exactly - constitutes an ADF operation. That confusion is due to the long-held belief that an ADF operation is the same for one company as it is the next - that it is a "one-size-fits-all" approach at mailroom automation. Few, if any, companies could see themselves getting past all of their internal organizational, process, budgetary and visionary hurdles to achieve that lofty ideal.
This is not to say that the ADF model has outlived its usefulness; in fact, the ADF model is probably now more important than ever. For some companies, new document controls and integrity practices introduced by recent legislation, such as HIPAA and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, are necessitating a change. Other organizations wish to lower costs and achieve better business margins, but they lack the real data to know exactly what their costs are and where they are concentrated. In reality, an ADF operation has become less of a business differentiator than a business requirement.
What does need to change, however, is how an ADF operation is envisioned, defined and implemented. The ADF used to be characterized as an enterprise-wide solution that took years to implement and even longer to recoup its costs - if it ever did. Today's ADF can be more customizable, taking a plug-and-play approach that can be broken down into specific production areas to comprise the total solution.
This approach mirrors that of many companies, which have started segmenting their production operations into three main business and solution areas: data processing and print management for enhancing the value of the communication piece; inserting and finishing for increasing the level of quality and integrity in the final product; and operations management for analyzing the efficiency and productivity of every resource, machine and business process.
Depending on a company's specific and unique needs, today's ADF solution should address any or all of these areas, yet offer the flexibility for it to adapt as requirements change. With that in mind, here is a closer look at those three areas that your ADF solution vendor should be able to help you with.
Enhanced Communication Value
A bill- or statement-type document is often a company's primary - if not only - means of communication with its customers. Most organizations would be hard-pressed to find a more important step in their communications cycle than processing client data. In fact, many companies have combined their print and data processing environments to create a single output creation area. This department, which is responsible for all internal and external correspondence, provides a convenient way for firms to focus on improving their communications process.
By concentrating on the format and the content of each document, companies can make strategic enhancements to this process by:
- Selecting the most effective format, be it letter, flat, booklet, perfect bound or others
- Optimizing data formats for efficient imaging, inserting or finishing
- Increasing equipment processing volumes with little or no additional capital investments
- Using full-color variable printing to enhance personalization and impact
- Stimulating business through selective messaging, strategic data placement and document formatting
- Using machine inserts for 1:1 marketing while observing operational guidelines for mailpiece weight
- Making better use of legacy applications and equipment by extracting and repurposing print stream data to work in new formats
- Supporting online statement imaging for customer service representatives
By customizing document content and format, companies can easily transform their communications from basic documents to documents that "work" on a number of levels.
Increased Production Integrity
At the most basic level, integrity means ensuring that the correct pages and inserts are assembled in the correct package. Having the correct pages protects a customer's privacy and provides all the information they need to manage their account. Having the correct inserts ensures customers are being informed of important regulations, rate changes or other account messages.
By automating the integrity assurance process, companies can enable both new and existing equipment to:
- Reconcile a mail run
- Detect duplicate mailpieces
- Generate reprints
- Divert special handling pieces
- Make postage adjustments and generate manifests
- Perform end-of-inserter integrity checks
Audit trails of mailpiece assembly and processing are invaluable tools and are virtual requirements in today's business environment. This information becomes even more useful when customer service representatives can easily access it to answer questions regarding statement mailing dates or transactions.
Improved Operational Efficiency
Until recently, department managers have had zero visibility into the activities of other areas that comprise a document factory. That's no longer the case.
Now, companies can put into place ADF solutions that give them the capability to track a customer's job from data processing and file enhancement, through the printing, inserting and finishing processes, to the sorting and pick-up areas, and finally to delivery to the warehouse.
With this drill-down reporting, companies can proactively manage operations using reports that provide the necessary data for:
- Knowing how many pieces have been imaged
- Tracking machine production and downtime
- Analyzing operator performance and productivity
- Increasing the accuracy of cost and delivery estimates
- Scheduling with live production data
- Re-routing jobs around bottlenecks
By making some or all of this information available to both internal and external users, companies can improve their levels of customer service. Managers and clients, for example, could securely access job stats and details to monitor progress on their work. Web-based reports that are customized to match a corporate "look and feel" can be seamlessly linked to an existing Web site for even easier access. And most importantly, companies can make informed decisions about their production operations using real data.
Getting Everything In Place
For many companies, identifying solutions to improve the productivity of their document factory is not the hard part; the challenge is in understanding how to successfully implement these solutions in their particular environment.
Having access to the best people, processes and technologies is crucial to making any ADF implementation work - and work well. Be sure to select a vendor that has the experience in providing customers with best-of-breed solutions in even the most complicated and diverse environments.
So, what is the state of the automated document factory? Unlike the ADF model of just a few years ago, today's ADF is no longer relegated to the ranks of lofty ideals. It is a real solution for real companies facing today's real business requirements. Check with your vendor to see if their ADF solution is right for you.
About Böwe Bell & Howell
Headquartered in Chicago, Ill., Böwe Bell & Howell is a provider of high-performance automated mailing solutions and leading-edge software for the document production industry. Böwe Bell & Howell's portfolio of standalone cutting, packaging, inserting, plastic card, sorting, integrity and print-on-demand solutions comprises the industry's most comprehensive product and service offering for paper-based and electronic production mail. These solutions are supported by the largest dedicated service organization in the industry. For further information on Böwe Bell & Howell, please visit www.bowebellhowell.com.